This is the press release for "The 2010 Climate B.S.* Of The Year Award". I was a signatory to the text, the full version of which is attached.

By: Pacific Institute

OAKLAND, Calif. Dec. 30, 2010 - Today marks the release of the very first Annual Climate B.S.* of the Year Award. While many observers think they know what "B.S." means, here the award is presented for the "Bad Science" of the Year. The Award is being simultaneously released on a number of climate sites, among them: Skeptical Science, deSmogBlog, UU-UNO Climate Portal, Conservation Minnesota, The Cost of Energy Blog, ScholarsandRogues.com; Huffington Post, SF Gate "City Brights," Pacific Institute, and more.

These physical impacts will lead to sharply increased disease, military and economic instabilities, food and water shortages, and extreme weather events, among other things. Without appropriate risk management action, the United States will be hit hard. Yet confusion and uncertainty about climate change remain high in the minds of too many members of the public and Congress.

Why? In large part because of a concerted, coordinated, aggressive campaign by a small group of well-funded climate change deniers and contrarians focused on intentionally misleading the public and policymakers with bad science about climate change. Much of this effort is based on intentional falsehoods, misrepresentations, inflated uncertainties, and pure and utter B.S. about climate science. These efforts have been successful in sowing confusion and delaying action – just as the same tactics were successful in delaying efforts to tackle tobacco's health risks.

In response, a group of climate scientists, climate communicators, and other experts solicited nominations for Climate B.S* of the Year from around the world and then narrowed the list down to five finalists. Voting produced the following award winners:

Fourth Place. Misleading or false testimony to Congress and policymakers about climate change.

Third Place. The false claim that a single weather event, such as a huge snowstorm in Washington, D.C., proves there is no global warming.

Second Place. The false claim that the "Climategate" emails meant that global warming was a hoax, or was criminal. In fact, it was none of these things.

AND THE WINNER OF THE 2010 CLIMATE B.S.* OF THE YEAR AWARD?

First Place. "There has been no warming since 1998" [or 2000, or…], "the earth is cooling," "global warming is natural," and "humans are too insignificant to affect the climate." All of these claims are false according to climate science.

The award goes to all those climate change deniers who promulgate these false claims in the media, before Congress and the public, and throughout the blogosphere: such statements are all nonsense and long refuted by real climate science. For full details on each prize winner's contribution to climate B.S., visit one of the posting sites.

Dr. Peter Gleick, one of the co-authors and creators of the Award, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Science, and a hydroclimatologist by training, said: "The public and our policymakers are being bombarded with climate B.S. It is long past time this B.S. was called out for what it is: bad science. Policymakers should not hide behind bad climate science as an excuse to avoid taking actions now to both reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prepare for inevitable climate impacts."

This is the cover letter for a recent paper "Climate Change: Summary and Recommendations to Governments" by the CoNGO Committee on Sustainable Development (New York). CoNGO is the Conference of Non-governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations. The paper is attached as a pdf file.

"Environmental, social and economic development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

17 November 2009

Dear NGO Leader,

The CoNGO Committee for Sustainable Development is pleased to present the attached Climate Change Paper, containing recommendations to Governments on four critical issues: (1) the dangers of unmitigated climate change impacts; (2) reaching accord on climate change at COP15; (3) risk-management mitigation and adaptation strategies; and (4) assistance to developing countries. The Committee urges your NGO to encourage all nations to act clearly and decisively on these issues, as equitable, humane, ethical, and beneficial solutions are possible. Let not future generations say, of us: “They knew, but did not act”.

Please add the voice of your NGO to this message by signing on to this paper with an email to: climatechangepaper@gmail.com

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Ann Braudis Co-Chair, Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic, Inc.

Iryna Kurowyckyj Co-Chair, International Council of Women

Lily Schwabe Secretary, Temple of Understanding

Aaron Etra Treasurer, B’nai B’rith

Jan Dash Member at Large, Unitarian Universalist UN Office

Brad Jenkins Member at Large, Rotary International

Nana-Fosu Randall Member at Large, Voices of African Mothers

Larry Roeder Member at Large, World Society for the Protection of Animals

Patricia Scharlin Member at Large, World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts

You are invited to visit the new UU-UNO Climate Change web portal at http://www.trunity.net/uuuno/. The focus is on resources covering the science, impacts, and mitigation of climate change / global warming, including informative RSS feeds. Ethical and moral aspects of action are discussed. There will be coverage of the Copenhagen COP15 conference in December.

I went down to Arlington VA on Monday (May 18) to give some testimony for the EPA, officially the “U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Public Hearing on the Proposed Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases under the Clean Air Act”. The time was limited to four minutes for each speaker. My contribution is attached as a pdf file. It is directed towards impacts to the US because the EPA is a US agency.

Although the talks I heard were mostly reasonable, I did hear one contrarian who ineffectively blustered away at the science with some of the usual irrelevant fallacies. For those interested in exploring the myriad fallacies pushed by contrarians, an excellent source is the website run by climate scientists, realclimate.org

The official transcript is under docket EPA-HQ-OAR-2009-0171 at http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocumentDetail&o=09000064809d1901